Luella Klein Lifetime Achievement Award

The Luella Klein Lifetime Achievement Award recipients will be honored during the Presidential Inauguration and Convocation at 9 am Monday in Hall D.

Roy Macbeth Pitkin, MD

Roy Macbeth Pitkin, MD

Dr. Pitkin attended the University of Iowa for his bachelor of arts, medical degree, and residency in obstetrics and gynecology. After military service and faculty appointment at the University of Illinois, he returned to Iowa where, in 1977, he became head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology for the next 10 years. He then moved to a similar position at the University of California, Los Angeles, retiring as professor emeritus in 1998.

Dr. Pitkin served, often as chair, on numerous national and international bodies responsible for establishing nutritional standards. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1990, when few ob–gyns were members of that organization, and to fellowship ad eundem in the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Among several editorial positions, he is best known as editor of Obstetrics & Gynecology (1985–2001). In 2003, his comprehensive history of the journal, “The Green Journal: 50 Years On,” was published. He has also written “Whom the Gods Love Die Young,” a book on medical history. His bibliography, which includes more than 250 original scientific reports, shows particular focus on nutrition and work for which he received recognition from the American Medical Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the March of Dimes.

John D. Thompson Sr., MD

John D. Thompson Sr., MD

Dr. Thompson, who passed away on Jan. 11, 2017, was fascinated by the field of medicine at an early age — so much so that he earned the nickname “Doc” from his elementary school classmates, because he would “diagnose” their illnesses during recess.

He received his undergraduate degree in 1948 and medical degree in 1951 from Emory University. He trained as a resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in obstetrics and gynecology and in pathology. After three years at Louisiana State University School of Medicine’s department of obstetrics and gynecology at Charity Hospital, he returned to Emory where he was appointed chair of the department of gynecology and obstetrics in 1961 (at age 34, the youngest chairperson in the country), chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Grady Memorial Hospital, and head of obstetrics and gynecology at the Emory Clinic.

During his tenure as chair, the department’s teaching, patient care, and research programs—especially the faculty, residency training program, and undergraduate education program for medical students—were greatly improved and expanded. New developments under his guidance included maternal and infant care, family planning, gynecologic oncology, nurse midwifery, teen services, adolescent pregnancy, perinatal pathology, cervical cancer detection, resident research, a rape crisis center, and a regional referral center for high-risk obstetric patients. Because of these efforts, high rates of maternal mortality, stillbirth, neonatal death, grand multiparity, and death from cervical cancer were significantly reduced. The department participated actively in the successful effort to influence the Georgia General Assembly to pass legislation approving the establishment of the Georgia Council on Maternal Health and participated actively in writing a Maternal Health Care Plan for Georgia.

Dr. Thompson was a consultant to the Children’s Bureau; he served twice with Project Hope and lectured in more than 50 foreign countries and many hospitals, medical schools, and conferences in the United States.

He also coedited and authored three editions of Te Linde’s Operative Gynecology.

He served as an examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology for 18 years. In 1994, Dr. Thompson received the Distinguished Gynecologic Surgeon Award from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons. He was a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Gynecological Society, the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons, and the Society of Pelvic Surgeons.

“Papa Doc” — as he was nicknamed by his grandchildren — is survived by five children: John, Millie, Bo, Jimmy, and Daniel; five grandchildren; and his Scottish terriers, Chipper and McCloud.